Tammy Abraham, Isaiah Brown and Ruben Loftus-Cheek are imo the most promising at the moment.
Young French Talent
- Thread starter Mr Smith
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
Very little talk of Maxime Lopez yet but I believe that will change soon
Not him! He's Championship level at best. Doesn't make him a bad player just not international/top PL level
Such a misleading title 
While France do have a very talented team of young players coming through and will be one of the big favorites going into the next few tournaments. They cant fall for the same mistakes England did when having this spell of top talents who all emerge around the same period. By mistakes i mean the way in which we utilized these players, putting the best 11 together doesn't mean they will play well and we found that out better than anyone playing Lampard and Gerrard in a midfield two for so long. Sometimes sacrifices are needed and i hope France can build a balanced team rather than 11 individuals as it would be a waste of a good era for them.
He needs more time and we need to see him have good games against good opponents.
Is this just not what happens when you do youth coaching well, with a lot of well qualified coaches. UEFA data shows that England has 1,395 coaches holding Uefa’s A and Pro qualification badges compared to Germany’s 6,934, Italy’s 2,281, France’s 3,308 and Spain’s whopping 15,423. Source http://buzz.bournemouth.ac.uk/2014/01/englands-coaching-problem-compare-rest-europe/
If heat is a reason to stay away from football, I finally know why us Indians suck at it.
I think the abundance of money in the PL gets in the way of proper scouting of talent and proper development of talent.
I have 0 scientific proof of this but it seems that there is a tipping point at which you have just enough money to invest properly in scouting and nurturing talent. Below that, and you don't have the resources. Above that tipping point, and you start trying to constantly buy ready made players, the pressure increases to get immediate results, and the risks associated with giving young talent the chance to shine becomes higher.
If we were to assume my premise is right, then I think Ligue 1 teams are in that sweet spot.
I have 0 scientific proof of this but it seems that there is a tipping point at which you have just enough money to invest properly in scouting and nurturing talent. Below that, and you don't have the resources. Above that tipping point, and you start trying to constantly buy ready made players, the pressure increases to get immediate results, and the risks associated with giving young talent the chance to shine becomes higher.
If we were to assume my premise is right, then I think Ligue 1 teams are in that sweet spot.
I have said it in the past but the PL has one equivalent in the world and it's the TOP 14 both leagues have a clear problem when it comes to unearthing gems and that's mainly because the managers aren't talent developers but talent exploiters and clubs don't have the patience to find and develop players.
Agreed. I think PL is also not a good environment for talented players looking to break into first team because you turn from a relative nobody into front page news and a worldwide sensation very quickly. Your world changing because of one game doesn't help.
France U-25 team by L'Equipe:
Simply a ridiculous team. Going from the same age group \ groups no other nation will hold a candle to that team if they fulfill their promise. Germany, Belgium, Spain, Portugal hasn't got anything near the same level of talent in this generation \ cycle.France U-25 team by L'Equipe:
Is it fine to necro this?
Well when it comes to French talents right now I'll try to do the 3 best of each generation from 1999 to 2003.
1999
-Michaël Cuisance (Borussia Monchengladbach) : Central/Attacking midfielder, he has mostly shined with the U19 and U20 French national teams as he hasn't had a lot of playing time in the Bundesliga so far. He's a control type player, good with the ball and quite smart. He was the player who controlled the tempo for France's U19 side at Euro last summer.
-Moussa Diaby (Paris Saint-Germain) : The best player to have broke through PSG's first team in the past few seasons from their academy, Diaby is extremely fast and a natural winger, he likes to play wide and rather than being a prolific goalscorer he finds himself with a very good ratio of assist per minutes, he leads PSG's entire side in that statistic and managed to make a difference whenever Tuchel used him as a supersub.
-Boubacar Kamara (Olympique de Marseille) : It's not often Marseille produces a genuinely exciting young player, Kamara is just that, a great centerback prospect who's been according to rumors followed by a lot of Europe's biggest clubs, mature enough to already fit into Marseille's 1st team and outperform the very experienced centerbacks he's paired up with Kamara looks to join on the very long list of hugely talented French centerbacks under the age of U23.
2000
-Amine Gouiri (Olympique Lyonnais) : Hailing from Lyon's academy Gouiri is the most prolific striker in the history of French national youth teams, boasting an impressive record of 32 goals in 27 appearances in the U17/18/19 age classes. He is a typical center forward, big,strong but also quite technical, his best attribute is undoubtly his finishing. He would probably already have quite a lot of appearances and goals for Lyon's 1st team if he hadn't torn his ACL back in August. He's training again right now and might make a comeback soon.
-Maxence Caqueret (Olympique Lyonnais) : Another Lyon product, Caqueret is yet another highly technical midfielder that they have produced, good on the ball, great passing range and even a high quality longshot, Caqueret still isn't actually an Attacking Midfielder, even at a youth level it is as a CM where he shines the most, he has made his pro debut a few months earlier and will most likely be integrated into Lyon's 1st team starting next season.
-Yacine Adli (Bordeaux) : Given the hype around him when Arsenal was rumored to sign Adli you'd think he would have managed to get into what seems to be the weakest midfielder PSG have had for a while, Tuchel thought otherwise and the player was sold to Bordeaux after refusing a loan move away from PSG. Nonetheless Adli remains a talented player, in fact it is not so much his technical talent or his intellignece that was put in quesiton at PSG but his level of fitness. Adli has got height but not the strength to go with it and his lack of pace might prove an issue in a league with so many quick players. It remains to be seen whether or not he'll manage to make it at the top level but he deserves a mention as a consistent standout of the 2000 generation.
2001
-Willem Geubbels (AS Monaco) : Bought last summer from Lyon for 20M aged just 16, Willem Geubbels is a player who reminds a lot of football fans in France of Kylian Mbappe, his precocity, his goalscoring record in youth football and some similar attributes such as very good movement and eye for the goal. I believe Geubbels is still quite different from Mbappe, he is more physical and powerful but lacks some of the ball control and dribbling.
Nonetheless with his goalscoring ability and his physical attributes I think he is one of the safest bets for a very successful career.
So far he's been injured over and over since coming to Monaco, nothing big but small ones that have prevented him from playing regularly.
-Arthur Zagre (Paris Saint-Germain) : It's not often France produces great fullbacks and It's not often that one of the best prospect of his generation actually is an actual fullback. Arthur Zagre is the most promising player at PSG's academy right now if their fans are to be believed. He won the Titi d'Or awarded to the best academy player succeeding the likes of Adli,Augustin,Edouard,Diaby or Coman, unlike most of them though he plays a position in which PSG badly needs quality and is unlikely to fill with star players worth 200M.
-Benoit Badiashile (AS Monaco) : Making his debut into one of the worst Monaco sides in recent times isn't easy, but few could have done better than Badiashile at such a young age given the circumstances. The young centerback was put into a starting position following the severals injuries to Monaco's starters and has done more than a decent job in what were his very first games at the top level.
2002 : I know way too little about this generation, the only player I can write anything about is Titouan Thomas.
-Titouan Thomas (Olympique Lyonnais) : Starting off as a striker Thomas has shifted into an attacking/central midfield position when he was promoted to Lyon's U19 team. His best quality is his resistance to pressing, a good ball carrier and overall good technical player, Lyon is trying to have him sign a pro contract but l'Equipe reports that his family is playing hard to get regarding his contract.
2003
-Rayan Cherki (Olympique Lyonnais) : The youngest goalscorer in the history of the youth league, at just 15 years old Cherki is beating all precocity records ever set in French football, already a starter for Lyon's U19 side and consistently the best player on the pitch for them, widely believed to be the best player Lyon has ever had in their academy he is also considered the most talented player scouted in the past 25 years by the biggest Football scouting website in France. An ambidextrous dribbler who makes something happen out of thin air every time he has the ball and whose technical skill and playstyle reminds a lot of people of none other than Neymar.
Having him sign a professional contract seems to be quite a challenge for Jean-Michel Aulas since the player hasn't agreed to it yet and will be free of any engagement this summer, l'Equipe reports Bayern Munich,Barcelona,Ajax,AC Milan and Bayern have all made the player's family know of their interest.
-Florent Da Silva (Olympique Lyonnais) : Another extremely precocious player out of Lyon, in fact if not for Cherki then Da Silva would hold most of the precocity records set at the club, also a frequent player for the U19 team although unlike his teammate he still goes back and forth between U17 and U19, he's the only player alongside his teammate to feature so young at the U19 level, something Martial,Geubbels,Aouar weren't doing at that age. Speaking of Aouar, Da Silva draws quite a few similarities to him, he plays in the number 10 role and holds the same on the ball and technical quality although I believe he is even more offensive and holds more power behind his shots, just like the case of Thomas and Cherki, he hasn't signed a professional contract and Aulas will be looking to solve that issue in the coming months.
-Hannibal Mejbri (As Monaco) : Admittedly I don't know as much about him as I do the others two given he's yet to make a Youth League appearance but Mejbri is highly rated and is looking to leave Monaco, he was linked to Manchester United in the January window but didn't end up leaving the club, this summer we can expect him to do so and perhaps United will be back in for him. Contracted until 2021 he was a standout in Monaco's youth teams and the reason of his upcoming departure has been said to be purely personal and linked to an event involving some of the club's staff and the player's parents.
Well when it comes to French talents right now I'll try to do the 3 best of each generation from 1999 to 2003.
1999
-Michaël Cuisance (Borussia Monchengladbach) : Central/Attacking midfielder, he has mostly shined with the U19 and U20 French national teams as he hasn't had a lot of playing time in the Bundesliga so far. He's a control type player, good with the ball and quite smart. He was the player who controlled the tempo for France's U19 side at Euro last summer.
-Moussa Diaby (Paris Saint-Germain) : The best player to have broke through PSG's first team in the past few seasons from their academy, Diaby is extremely fast and a natural winger, he likes to play wide and rather than being a prolific goalscorer he finds himself with a very good ratio of assist per minutes, he leads PSG's entire side in that statistic and managed to make a difference whenever Tuchel used him as a supersub.
-Boubacar Kamara (Olympique de Marseille) : It's not often Marseille produces a genuinely exciting young player, Kamara is just that, a great centerback prospect who's been according to rumors followed by a lot of Europe's biggest clubs, mature enough to already fit into Marseille's 1st team and outperform the very experienced centerbacks he's paired up with Kamara looks to join on the very long list of hugely talented French centerbacks under the age of U23.
2000
-Amine Gouiri (Olympique Lyonnais) : Hailing from Lyon's academy Gouiri is the most prolific striker in the history of French national youth teams, boasting an impressive record of 32 goals in 27 appearances in the U17/18/19 age classes. He is a typical center forward, big,strong but also quite technical, his best attribute is undoubtly his finishing. He would probably already have quite a lot of appearances and goals for Lyon's 1st team if he hadn't torn his ACL back in August. He's training again right now and might make a comeback soon.
-Maxence Caqueret (Olympique Lyonnais) : Another Lyon product, Caqueret is yet another highly technical midfielder that they have produced, good on the ball, great passing range and even a high quality longshot, Caqueret still isn't actually an Attacking Midfielder, even at a youth level it is as a CM where he shines the most, he has made his pro debut a few months earlier and will most likely be integrated into Lyon's 1st team starting next season.
-Yacine Adli (Bordeaux) : Given the hype around him when Arsenal was rumored to sign Adli you'd think he would have managed to get into what seems to be the weakest midfielder PSG have had for a while, Tuchel thought otherwise and the player was sold to Bordeaux after refusing a loan move away from PSG. Nonetheless Adli remains a talented player, in fact it is not so much his technical talent or his intellignece that was put in quesiton at PSG but his level of fitness. Adli has got height but not the strength to go with it and his lack of pace might prove an issue in a league with so many quick players. It remains to be seen whether or not he'll manage to make it at the top level but he deserves a mention as a consistent standout of the 2000 generation.
2001
-Willem Geubbels (AS Monaco) : Bought last summer from Lyon for 20M aged just 16, Willem Geubbels is a player who reminds a lot of football fans in France of Kylian Mbappe, his precocity, his goalscoring record in youth football and some similar attributes such as very good movement and eye for the goal. I believe Geubbels is still quite different from Mbappe, he is more physical and powerful but lacks some of the ball control and dribbling.
Nonetheless with his goalscoring ability and his physical attributes I think he is one of the safest bets for a very successful career.
So far he's been injured over and over since coming to Monaco, nothing big but small ones that have prevented him from playing regularly.
-Arthur Zagre (Paris Saint-Germain) : It's not often France produces great fullbacks and It's not often that one of the best prospect of his generation actually is an actual fullback. Arthur Zagre is the most promising player at PSG's academy right now if their fans are to be believed. He won the Titi d'Or awarded to the best academy player succeeding the likes of Adli,Augustin,Edouard,Diaby or Coman, unlike most of them though he plays a position in which PSG badly needs quality and is unlikely to fill with star players worth 200M.
-Benoit Badiashile (AS Monaco) : Making his debut into one of the worst Monaco sides in recent times isn't easy, but few could have done better than Badiashile at such a young age given the circumstances. The young centerback was put into a starting position following the severals injuries to Monaco's starters and has done more than a decent job in what were his very first games at the top level.
2002 : I know way too little about this generation, the only player I can write anything about is Titouan Thomas.
-Titouan Thomas (Olympique Lyonnais) : Starting off as a striker Thomas has shifted into an attacking/central midfield position when he was promoted to Lyon's U19 team. His best quality is his resistance to pressing, a good ball carrier and overall good technical player, Lyon is trying to have him sign a pro contract but l'Equipe reports that his family is playing hard to get regarding his contract.
2003
-Rayan Cherki (Olympique Lyonnais) : The youngest goalscorer in the history of the youth league, at just 15 years old Cherki is beating all precocity records ever set in French football, already a starter for Lyon's U19 side and consistently the best player on the pitch for them, widely believed to be the best player Lyon has ever had in their academy he is also considered the most talented player scouted in the past 25 years by the biggest Football scouting website in France. An ambidextrous dribbler who makes something happen out of thin air every time he has the ball and whose technical skill and playstyle reminds a lot of people of none other than Neymar.
Having him sign a professional contract seems to be quite a challenge for Jean-Michel Aulas since the player hasn't agreed to it yet and will be free of any engagement this summer, l'Equipe reports Bayern Munich,Barcelona,Ajax,AC Milan and Bayern have all made the player's family know of their interest.
-Florent Da Silva (Olympique Lyonnais) : Another extremely precocious player out of Lyon, in fact if not for Cherki then Da Silva would hold most of the precocity records set at the club, also a frequent player for the U19 team although unlike his teammate he still goes back and forth between U17 and U19, he's the only player alongside his teammate to feature so young at the U19 level, something Martial,Geubbels,Aouar weren't doing at that age. Speaking of Aouar, Da Silva draws quite a few similarities to him, he plays in the number 10 role and holds the same on the ball and technical quality although I believe he is even more offensive and holds more power behind his shots, just like the case of Thomas and Cherki, he hasn't signed a professional contract and Aulas will be looking to solve that issue in the coming months.
-Hannibal Mejbri (As Monaco) : Admittedly I don't know as much about him as I do the others two given he's yet to make a Youth League appearance but Mejbri is highly rated and is looking to leave Monaco, he was linked to Manchester United in the January window but didn't end up leaving the club, this summer we can expect him to do so and perhaps United will be back in for him. Contracted until 2021 he was a standout in Monaco's youth teams and the reason of his upcoming departure has been said to be purely personal and linked to an event involving some of the club's staff and the player's parents.
Goebbels was bought for 20m??
Yes.
Lot of drama around his transfer.
His father asked for Lyon to give him Piano lessons,Dutch classes and guaranteed playing time.
Aulas agreed some of the request but it didn't go down very well when salary came into play, Aulas offered him the biggest salary a player out of the academy had ever been offered but Monaco was willing to give him even more.
So Aulas sold him for 20M rather than having him leave for free a year later.
I expect France to win the euro 2020. i dont see many other countries that could compete. belgium had it's golden generation in 2016/18 but didn't win. England and germany are too inexperienced still and i expect those two to put in a reall challenge in qatar 2022.
They're definitely the favorites. I would say Germany always turn up for tournaments no matter how they do in the build up but then look what happened in the summer. England and Holland seem to be coming back strongly. Italy have a lot of young talents too. Spain have an abundance of talent but still don't seem to be up to much these days. Belgium and Portugal? Who knows.
Yacine Adli is class. He is so elegant on the ball. Major coup by Bordeaux I always have hope they return to how good they were in 08-09 and 09-10.
Three words: Clairefontaine youth academy.
Nope. Clairefontaine has little impact on the youth system, only a very small amount of players go there.
African athleticism developed through European coaching structures.
When will we see another Brazilian golden generation? It’s been too long.
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My guess is not for a long time The factors to create one just dont exist anymore.
Agreed. Such a shame.
Didn't say anything like that.
That was the implication.
With Africans, it's all about athleticism. Ridiculous outdated stereotype.
I remember Ian St John when he was on TV in the 70s saying that African players, with 'their athleticism combined with the discipline of the Whites would be a force.' I cringed at that back then but could forgive him. Now we have posters implying the same.
Sitting down to work. I've no interest in having this discussion and more than what I'll write here.
I think my statement was correct. Black athletes seem to dominate at elite levels so it's no stereotype to suggest they have superiority in that regard.
European coaching structures are ahead right now. France right now has better structures to develop players than any African country right now. Another factual statement.
So putting the two together results in great players.
You are looking for racism to complain about to the point that even stating facts is problematic to you.
There is nothing incorrect about my statement. And theres nothing racist about suggesting black players can be great when given the same opportunities as white players. In this instance that opportunity is high level coaching. I'd argue the success of France disproves racist ideas about black players. When given comparable coaching and development structures they are as good if not better. Players like Pogba, Mbappe and Kante are intelligent and cultured in their play disproving any idea of white advantage in that regard.
That's all I'm saying on this topic. If you want to cry about stereotypes go ahead but I'm not getting dragged into it.
It was just a matter of time before this. No one said this of that amazing spanish class of 08 or the 05/06 English golden generation because they were mostly WHITE. Now a crop of black French kids are doing better than everyone...Then all hail the white man who's solely responsible for it. Racists can't even hide their warped perceptions.
The only issue for me is why would you make that point about France. If the reason is african players in a european system then why Italy, Germany, the UK or Spain don't have the same phenomenon, they have plenty of sub saharian immigrants and they have a european system.
Dealt with this in previous post above. Stop projecting.
It's the training facilities.
I remember watching a documentary after the 98 World Cup talking about how French football had been such a disaster through the 60s and 70s and they decided to throw money at a state of the art training centre; Clairefontaine. It also seems to help that all the best youth players go there instead of it being left to their clubs to train them. It obviously works as they've got 2 World Cups out of it.
The FA finally pulled their fingers out and built St Georges Park - and now we're the U17 and U20 world champions.
I remember watching a documentary after the 98 World Cup talking about how French football had been such a disaster through the 60s and 70s and they decided to throw money at a state of the art training centre; Clairefontaine. It also seems to help that all the best youth players go there instead of it being left to their clubs to train them. It obviously works as they've got 2 World Cups out of it.
The FA finally pulled their fingers out and built St Georges Park - and now we're the U17 and U20 world champions.
Seems to be more of a prevalence in France. We're seeing huge numbers of brilliant black players come through. I'm not sure about the other countries. I dont know enough about their demographics etc.
The question is why, you made a claim about demographics but now says that you don't know much about it, France and the UK have comparable demographics when it comes to africans. The answer is very simple, it's about scouting and youth coaching, nothing else.
But is that because the most talented players are located there, or because that's where Clairefontaine draws from?
This part isn't true. It's about the clubs and the youth coach trainings not Clairefontaine. Clairefontaine is very limited in terms of age and volume. Most players develop later than Clairefontaine's age groups.
It's by far the most populous region and they have an incredible amount of local clubs and very good youth coaches, if you have talent you are more likely to be spotted early in that region. Other regions will have other sports particularly in the south.
If France currently has a golden generation, then you might as well say Brazil has one. There isn't much separating them talent wise. Belgium, same.
I dont really see how someone could objectively look at the current generation of top young French footballers and say they aren't benefitting from having a number of players of African origins. If it's simply coaching and scouting why are so many of their best young players black? I think they are benefitting from immigration and they high standard of coaching is bringing it to fruition.
The difference between them and England is probably scouting and coaching. Agreed.